Just a normal Sunday ride
04-19-20, 04:53 PM
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Just a normal Sunday ride
Lest you think life has gone completely to hell and our society is in the toilet:
Usual Sunday ride, this time the '71 Gitane Tour de France which had a definitely worn and sketchy rear sew-up with a spot in the sidewall that I'd been watching since last fall. Decided to chance it anyhow, and about 12 miles from home on US301, the sidewall fails just where I expected it to and the tire blows. No real problem. Pull the back wheel, pull off the tire, a new layer of glue on the rim, new tire mounted, and a quick spritz with the CO2 inflator, I've got the bike back on the road in ten minutes, or less.
Except that, within this time, the elderly gentleman (OK, I'm guessing 5-8 years older than me, but I definitely have him by a good 20 years in physical fitness) whose yard I'd been doing the repair in has pulled up on his tractor to see if I need any assistance. Or use of his compressor. And I get to watch his eyes bug out as I explain to him that yes, you do glue the tires onto the rim. Passed the dead tire over to him so he could see what I was talking about. Meanwhile, another stranger southbound on 301 in a Suburban has pulled up to inquire whether I'd need a lift. Very gracious thanks to both gentlemen involved, and I'm on my way. Cut the day's ride a bit short as I no longer was carrying a usable spare.
I may live in rural, tea-party Virginia, but we're not totally populated by loud, redneck, militia cosplayers with "assault rifles". Civilized gentlemen still abound.
Usual Sunday ride, this time the '71 Gitane Tour de France which had a definitely worn and sketchy rear sew-up with a spot in the sidewall that I'd been watching since last fall. Decided to chance it anyhow, and about 12 miles from home on US301, the sidewall fails just where I expected it to and the tire blows. No real problem. Pull the back wheel, pull off the tire, a new layer of glue on the rim, new tire mounted, and a quick spritz with the CO2 inflator, I've got the bike back on the road in ten minutes, or less.
Except that, within this time, the elderly gentleman (OK, I'm guessing 5-8 years older than me, but I definitely have him by a good 20 years in physical fitness) whose yard I'd been doing the repair in has pulled up on his tractor to see if I need any assistance. Or use of his compressor. And I get to watch his eyes bug out as I explain to him that yes, you do glue the tires onto the rim. Passed the dead tire over to him so he could see what I was talking about. Meanwhile, another stranger southbound on 301 in a Suburban has pulled up to inquire whether I'd need a lift. Very gracious thanks to both gentlemen involved, and I'm on my way. Cut the day's ride a bit short as I no longer was carrying a usable spare.
I may live in rural, tea-party Virginia, but we're not totally populated by loud, redneck, militia cosplayers with "assault rifles". Civilized gentlemen still abound.
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Syke
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
H.L. Mencken, (1926)
Syke
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
H.L. Mencken, (1926)
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04-19-20, 05:13 PM
#3
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I find most folks in most place to be entirely hospitious.
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